The Language of Names: What We Call Ourselves and Why It Matters
by Justin Kaplan and Anne Bernays
From the back cover:
"As delightful and playful as it is profound and serious, The Language of Names is an absolute original—a fascinating book that reveals us to ourselves, that demonstrates the endless variety of ways in which names shape our daily lives.Drawing on social and literary history, psychology and anthropology, anecdotes, and life stories, biographer Justin Kaplan and novelist Anne Bernays have written a fascination account of names and naming in contemporary society that touches on class structure,ethnic and religious practices, manners, and everyday life. Graceful, eloquent, and richly informed, The Language of Names explores and illuminates our favorite subject—ourselves."
Casey's review:
The Language of Names contains only two chapters that I was really interested in for the purpose of discussing names in relation to weddings/marriage: Chapter 8: Maiden Names and Chapter 9: Rules of Engagement: The Etiquette of Names. Chapter 8 discusses how it was common practice but not required by law for a woman to take her husband’s name upon marriage. It notes that “most men believe it seemly for a woman to give up her name when she marries” and many will become quite agitated if she resists (137). There are some reader responses to a magazine article published by Bernays in 1993 that show how some men and women think about changing or not changing names and what it means to them personally. The chapter focuses on several case studies like Lucy Stone and explains the difficulties women face in going against the norm. Chapter 9 reveals the change in etiquette over the past few centuries in how people address each other. We have become less formal but still remain confused when trying to find the proper way of addressing strangers or others whose status is unknown.
I would have preferred a more detailed and thorough examination of naming practices from this book. Most chapters either contained topics that did not interest me – such as various people’s speculation on whether or not a name is destiny – or skipped around too much chronologically to make it easy to follow the reasoning. I felt put off by the odd examples and sometimes abrupt shift in the authors’ focus. All in all, this book brings up some interesting points and stories on the history of naming in the U.S., but the quirky tone and sometimes obscure examples make it good for a few quotes and not much more.
